00:00When you imagine oceanic predators of our planet's prehistoric waters, something like this likely comes to mind.
00:09However, a new discovery of fossils in North Greenland has revealed it may have been gigantic carnivorous worms that ruled the planet's ancient waters.
00:17This is an artist's rendering of what researchers are now calling Timura bestia copri, or what translated from Latin means terror beast.
00:25The creatures were around a foot long, meaning they were not only giants by worm standards, but also giants for their day.
00:32In fact, they swam around Earth's ocean some 518 million years ago, which was during the Cambrian explosion, or likely before many of the more complex animals roamed the planet.
00:42With the researchers writing, quote,
00:44Timura bestia were giants of their day, and would have been close to the top of the food chain.
00:48That makes it equivalent in importance to some of the top carnivores in modern oceans, such as sharks and seals.
00:54Back in the Cambrian period.
00:56In fact, inside the bellies of the fossils of these creatures, paleontologists have found arthropod remains, the eventual food chain leaders later.
01:03Meaning these worms, which preyed on the ancestors of insects, spiders, and crustaceans, likely sat at the very top of the food chain, in what the researchers call worm world.
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